MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS. 21.3 



and Washington between the mountains and the 

 sea. 



The Horse Bean. — The horse bean (Vicia faba) 

 is doubtless so named from the extent to which it can 

 be used in feeding horses in countries where its 

 growth has been found profitable. It is sometimes 

 called the Scotch bean, from the extent to which it 

 is grown in that country even almost to the ex- 

 clusion of all other sorts of the bean family. The 

 damp and temperate clim.ate of Great Britain and 

 especially of Scotland has peculiar adaptation for 

 the growth of the horse bean. It is a hardy and 

 vigorous grower. The plants sometimes attain a 

 hight of four feet and even a greater hight. The 

 pods are numerous and contain from three to five 

 beans of a large size. The average yield per acre 

 in Scotland is not far from thirty bushels. 



The Scotch bean has been found to furnish an 

 excellent food for horses and other domestic animals. 

 It is best adapted to strong loam soils of good drain- 

 age. It is usual to grow the beans in rows twenty- 

 four to thirty-six inches distant from one another, 

 and to cultivate the crop as other beans are culti- 

 vated. The aim is to have the beans about two inches 

 apart in the row. To grow them thus would require 

 from two to three bushels of seed to the acre. 



The horse bean has not been much tried under 

 American conditions. It has been grown to a con- 

 siderable extent however by dairymen in the vicinity 

 of Montreal, Can. In the more dry climate of 

 western Ontario, however, the crop has not proved 

 a success. The author has not been able to secure 

 a good growth of straw or of leaves in western 



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